The NuvaRing: A Love Story

Remember how much Elaine adored her favorite kind of birth control, the sponge, on Seinfeld, even going so far as to buy up an entire store’s supply when she heard that the product was going to be discontinued? Well, that’s how I feel about the NuvaRing. It started when I became the first person at my university to get on the ring when it was approved by the FDA. A friend of mine who worked as a sex ed teacher had been on the clinical trials and couldn’t stop raving about it. When I needed to get on a regular form of contraception, the ring appealed to me immediately. I knew I couldn’t trust myself with the pill when I couldn’t even remember to take a vitamin every day. The shot seemed like too much of a commitment. I have sensitive skin, so I didn’t want to try the patch. So, the ring it was. I got pretty lucky finding the perfect contraceptive for me on my first try, but I know it’s not the one for everybody. Here are some of the questions that my friends normally ask me when I go on a the-ring-is-the-best tangent:

Does it ever, like, fall out?

It did. The first month I used it it probably fell out five times. But you get the hang of it. Now, I totally forget I it’s there. If it wasn’t for my email alerts I would forget to take it out. As you can see in this picture, the ring isn’t that big. Plus it’s made of this super-bendy material, so you can just kind of fold it up.

Do you feel weird about having to touch yourself?

I’m touching myself, but I’m not “touching myself.” That’s such a masturbation euphemism, and that’s not really something I associate with putting my ring in. I mean, if you’re too scared to touch your own vagina twice a month (to put the ring in and then take it out), why are you having sex with someone who, presumably, touches your vagina?

Can your partner feel it?

Yeah. It doesn’t get in the way or anything, but it’s there. I decided to ask the person I have sex with. His exact quote was “It’s better than condoms, but I wish sometimes she would take the pill.” But I guess he decided at some point that noticing my ring every now and then was better than us never having sex again, so whatevs. And it hasn’t negatively affected either of our abilities to enjoy sex. However… if that dude birth control pill goes on the market, we can definitely renegotiate.

i tried NuvaRing about five years ago…i couldn’t keep it in.
but being really bad with the pill, and having had a horrible allergic reaction to the shot the one time i tried it, i’m willing to give NuvaRing a try again. or maybe i’ll just get my tubes tied instead…i hear that works wonders, too.